156 On the Ballads and Legends of (lie 'Punjab. [No. 2. 



This bow was no doubt introduced into India from Scythia bj the 

 Moguls — it is manifest that something of the same nature was in 

 use in ancient Greece, for Homer describes the bow of Pandarus* 

 as being formed of the horns of the mountain goat. 



Curtius describes the Indian bow as being so long and heavy, as 

 to be necessarily rested upon the earth when being drawn, the arrow 

 also was heavy, perhaps like the Bheel arrow. 



(29). On Sialkot's age-structur'd height and blood-cemented 

 towers. 



Tradition says that when Rajah Sala Byne was building the fort 

 of Sialkot, the foundation of the south-east bastion gave way so 

 repeatedly, that he had recourse to a soothsayer, who assured him 

 that it would never stand until the blood of an only son was shed there. 

 Sala Byne upon this took a boy, the only son of his widowed mother, 

 and slew him upon the foundation, which since then has stood fast. 



Upon this tradition, the Bards converted to Islam have built a tale 

 in honour of their saints, who it is said signally avenged the mur- 

 der, although it happened several hundred years before the birth of 

 Muhammed, and about a thousand previous to the Muhammedan 

 invasion of India. 



(30). The happy breeze from some far land her exil'd koel bears. 



The koel is a species of cuckoo of which the male is black, the 

 female brown. Its cry is wild, sometimes mournful, at others mirth- 

 ful. 



(31). The Peeluk long by winter bann'd. 



This is a beautiful bird of the size of a thrush, its plumage of the 

 richest yellow. It has a beautiful note like the bulbul's, but of rich- 

 er tone, it is a bird of passage. 



(32). Like pebble bounding o'er the ice, far through the echoing 

 grove. 



* Ai/Tt/c' i(rv\a ro^ov cv^oou t|aAou aiyos 



Aypiov, ov pa. ttot' avros vtto arepuuio Tvxr}<raS t 

 Uerprjs *K$aivovTa SeSeypevos ev irpo5oK>;(ri 

 BejSATjKei irpos <tt7)Qos Iliad 4, 105. 



Which old Chapman translates, — 

 He instantly drew forth a bow most admirably made 

 Of the antler of a jumping goat, bred in a steep upland 

 Which, archer-like (as long before he took his hidden stand 

 The evick, skipping from a rock) into the breast he smote 

 And head -long felled him from his cliff. 



